Inside Highland Park Brewery: a Visual Tour from La’s Chinatown to the San Juan Pop-Up
By Alexander Ross
To understand the cross-state venture into Washington, you have to look at the concrete floor plan on Spring Street. When Bob Kunz and business partner Michael Blackman opened their Chinatown location across from the Los Angeles State Historic Park in March 2018, local craft brewing was navigating an identity crisis. Many operations scaled too quickly into expensive regional grocery distribution, saddled with debt and warehouse shelf decay. Highland Park Brewery went the opposite way. They constructed a bright, industrial beer hall with high ceilings, polished draft rails, and an open kitchen, prioritizing draft beer velocity over supermarket volume.
The space is built around a custom 15-barrel brewhouse framed by stainless cellar tanks and dedicated horizontal lagering capacity. Walk into the venue on any given Thursday evening, and the room moves fast. Dodgertown patrons pack the long communal tables before home games, pairing draft pours with smash patties, cured fish tostadas, and crisp fries. Outside, the sheltered beer garden catches the dusk breeze coming off the Metro Gold Line tracks. By anchoring beer garden dining in LA with a serious kitchen program, Highland Park removed the classic friction point of American tasting rooms: the search for outside dinner.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
